Apple recently announced another great design achivement with their launch of iPad. I clearly am a fan of Apple’s design skills. I am also impressed at the way Apple has ramped up their Supply Chain – recently a global study mentioned them to be one of the world’s best. While they have a rather straight forward portfolio of products, the speed with which they evolve their products – it is impressive. But where I have issue with Apple is the way they treat their customers – esp. the early adapters….read more

I am just about to finish reading a rather interesting book about the history of Samurai (The Religion of the Samurai – A Study of Zen Philosophy and Discipline in China and Japan by Kaiten Nukariya.) It talks about how Buddhism reached China and Japan from India few 1000s year before. How Indian texts were translated to Chinese and then to Japanese and how the original Indian philosophy behind Buddhism was adapted by incorporating Taoism and Confucius philosophy. The only aspect of various forms of Buddhism including Zen that has…read more

The latest State of the World’s Children report by UNICEF has been released. Below is the press release from last month. (You can find previous years’ reports at here.) Abused and Neglected, Millions of Children Have Become Virtually Invisible LONDON, 14 December 2005. Hundreds of millions of children are suffering from severe exploitation and discrimination and have become virtually invisible to the world, UNICEF said today in a major report that explores the causes of exclusion and the abuses children experience.

Nick from Basel who is an active Fasnachter this year has written a diary about his experience. I found it very good read – especially as it gave insights to the fun that Fasnachters themselves have. I was lucky myself to participate in a Fasnacht – with costumes and all – though not here in Basel. It was in and around Winterthur, near Zurich in 2001! I hope to upload some of my own Fasnacht photographs soon.

The story about the reservation saga continues in India. I am sure this will also whimper down like the Mandal Commission protest in 1991. The problem is that there is a problem in India – and we are no where near a solution. Neither having reservation nor not having them will solve. While I personally am against the concept of using special coaching for preparing for entrance examinations (and I did not use them for my preparations for my Engineering entrance!) the following story – forwarded to me by a…read more

For the second time in less than two decades India is having the great reservation debate. While no one questions the merits of the need to solve problems faced by the underprivileged in India, I personally do question the case for having reservations in the format it exists today. But more than the debate itself, I was impressed at how much better India is as a performing democracy. Whether you like Arjun Singh or not, I can’t imagine an interview like the one below happening for example in USA. It is…read more

Yesterday night I attended concert by Shakti at the Basel Stadt Casino – with John McLaughlin (guitar), Zakir Hussain (tabla), U. Srinivas (mandolin), Selvaganesh (mridangam, ghata and kanjira) and Shankar Mahadevan (vocals). It was a very good fusion music evening. Indian classical music (both Hindustani and Carnatic) sounds packaged in a jazz concert style. The greatness of the musicians were quite obvious in the manner in which blended it all together. Perhaps I was expecting a huge lot more from the Maestros, the concert left me feeling a bit unsatisfied….read more

Swiss researchers have developed a biosensor that lights up when it detects arsenic, and have successfully tested it in drinking water in Vietnam. The award-winning breakthrough could improve the lives of millions worldwide who face serious health problems caused by drinking arsenic-contaminated water. Read more here

(and the reduced influence of English as a native language) The British Council has come up with an interesting report on the future of English. Here is the list of major languages used around the world today. No surprises for guessing with comes out on top. But if you look at the number of countries that speak each language the results could be quite different. Also perhaps based on each dollar of GDP around the world. Below is a list Done pea-sized. I viagra online uk lady smooth willing, the….read more

China and India are the most talked about emerging economies of the world today. China is already the second largest economy in terms of Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) and India is close to edging out Japan to be number three. And US, despite the continuing financial growth, is not seeing much change when it comes to the purchasing power of its common citizens. This is quite an interesting development. Most western economies today as is China to an extent today is based heavily on cross border trade. US perhaps to…read more